


A Brief Spot of Mortification

by mariatyler



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Humor, Misunderstandings, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-30
Updated: 2013-09-30
Packaged: 2017-12-28 01:45:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/986190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mariatyler/pseuds/mariatyler
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor feels rejected and embarrassed. Rose comes to set him straight.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Brief Spot of Mortification

He is _mortified._ He can’t believe what he’s just done – or rather, what he’s tried to do. He lets his head fall back with a groan of embarrassment and ends up hitting it too hard on his headboard, causing him to then groan in pain. He sits up in annoyance, flinging his legs over the side of his bed to take off his boots. He’s such an idiot. Why he ever thought that she might – blimey, what has he done? He’s gone and ruined everything. She probably thinks he’s a lecherous old man, now, and she’ll want to leave. Want to leave and never, ever come back.

He chucks his boots across the room with the force of his feelings of rejection, then flops onto his back, utterly miserable. As he closes his eyes, he muses that he can’t be arsed to take off the rest of his clothes. Maybe if he relaxes his mind he can just fall asleep like this and forget about the most humiliating moment of his life.

Mind you, he’s probably going to dream of her and then when he wakes up, he’ll be even grumpier. And frustrated.

Suddenly, he hears his bedroom door open. He doesn’t move, thinking that if she sees him like this she’ll assume he’s so exhausted that he’s nodded off. And then maybe she’ll leave. His room, that is. She can’t leave the TARDIS just yet;he’s parked in the vortex. Well, she’ll just have to wait ‘til morning if she wants to head back to her Mum’s, because he’s not moving a muscle tonight. He’s just gonna lie here and wallow and maybe in the morning, if he doesn’t feel too guilty about it, he’ll have a bit of a wank, and why hasn’t she left yet?

She’s creeping towards him, he can hear her. And there’s the dip of the mattress, and she’s sitting next to him, and oh fucking fuck what’s he going to do? Should he apologise again? Beg her to stay? Because really, he’s at the stage where he might resort to that. Get on his hands and knees and implore her not to leave him.

Her fingers touch his jumper, and then her hand is resting over one of his hearts. “Doctor?” she murmurs, trying to wake him. He continues to feign sleep, because he can’t bear to look into her eyes right now. “Doctor, please wake up. I want to talk to you.”

He sighs, and opens his eyes. “Hello,” he mumbles.

“Hi,” she smiles.

She’s so beautiful when she smiles. She’s also beautiful the rest of the time, too, and she’s very young, and he’s very old and very not-beautiful, so it doesn’t surprise him that she wants nothing to do with him, except that it does, because he was so sure he’d seen her looking. At him. That way. But evidently not.

“I wanted to clear up the, um, misunderstanding,” she says quietly, tucking her hair behind her ear.

Oh blimey, he doesn’t need any more clarification on the point. He’d leaned in for a kiss, she’d stopped him; he’d told her he wanted her, she’d gaped at him in shock. Didn’t take a genius to realise that he couldn’t have made a bigger fool of himself if he’d tried.

He places a hand over the one on his chest and squeezes gently. “It’s fine, Rose. Really. I was just – I don’t know what came over me but it’s fine. We’ll just forget about that and get back to normal, yeah? I won’t try to kiss you again, I promise.”

“I…oh,” she said. “See, that’s not – I don’t want that.”

“I gathered.”

“No! I mean, I don’t want you to never try to kiss me again,” she corrects quickly, then holds her breath.

He stares up at her. “I don’t understand. I’d’ve thought you’d want to leave - ”

“What? No. God, no. Are you serious? This – travelling with you is the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I’m not leaving until you chuck me out. Stuck with me, right?”

“Right,” he chuckles, very relieved to hear that. “So…what, I mean, what were you, er, saying, before?”

“You ran off before I had a chance to explain why I pushed you away.”

“I didn’t want to listen to any form of pity or - ”

“There wouldn’t have been any of that. But there would have been a request.”

“A…request?”

“Yep. To postpone…stuff.”

He’s utterly lost. “Rose, what?”

She bites her lip. “I’m sort of…I can’t…at the moment. Because of. You know. Women’s stuff. Time of the month and all that. So I couldn’t – I wanted – can you just, like, wait a week and then kiss me again?”

The Doctor stares at her in silence. And then, he starts to laugh. Laughs so hard and with so much relief that he pulls her down to him and gives her a hug. She rests her head on his shoulder and when his chuckles die off, he grins happily. “Rose.”

“Yeah?”

“I can definitely do that.”

“Well that’s very good,” she breathes out roughly.

“Fantastic, really,” he agrees. He strokes a hand through her hair and tells her softly, “You have to be absolutely sure, though. Because I…I don’t really want it to be a one-time thing, you know.”

“Me neither.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” She lifts her head to look at him. “I’m sorry you felt like I didn’t want you back. If you knew how I’ve been feeling for months, god, you wouldn’t have been in any doubt of that.”

“Really?”

“Really really.”

“You do wonders for my ego.”

“Yeah, well, I’ll make sure not to big you up too much or else you might not get through the TARDIS doors,” she smirks.

He chuckles, then shifts around to lie properly on the bed, pulling her with him. “You can stay here tonight, if you like.”

“You gonna stay too? Could use one of your cuddles.”

“Yeah,” he agrees gently, pulling the covers over her before standing up. “I’ll just get changed into my pjs. Do you want anything? Tablets? Hot water bottle? Chocolate?”

“I’m fine right now, thanks,” she giggles, then bites her lip and simply watches him.

“What?”

“Nothing. It’s just, you’re a bit perfect.”

The Doctor snorts. “Hardly.”

“You are,” she insists. “For me, you are.”

He rolls his eyes a her sentimentality and she laughs. When he pulls his jumper off, she stops laughing and stares. “Everything all right?” he asks, smothering a grin.

“Mmhmm. Just…taking it all in,” she murmurs.

His hands go to his belt and he hears her breath hitch. By the time he’s got his trousers off and is looking back at her, she’s biting that bottom lip of hers again.

“You can stay like that if you want,” she nearly whispers, eyeing his boxer-briefs. “No need to bother with pyjamas.”

The Doctor smirks, his self-consciousness fully abated, and slides into the bed beside her. The lights flicker out, and he wraps his arm around her, tucking her against him. “Night, night, Rose Tyler.”

Rose presses a soft kiss to his chest and smiles. “Night, Doctor.”


End file.
